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to travel whenever you want. visit citi.com/thankyoucards to apply. >> remake our government and revamp our tax code. >> the era of liberalism is back. >> medicare and medicaid. >> far left center. >> social security. >> president obama being accused of trying to annihilate the gop by pushing a far left agenda, but is he really that liberal? good shouldn't afternoon to you. i'm craig melvin. you're watching msnbc. we'll also look at how the worlds of sports and politics collide, and this. >> we're all getting a little emotional and sentimental around here. >> hillary clinton bowing out of state department, but she's hardly bowing out of politics. a view from inside hillaryland. that's coming up, and on this international holocaust remembrance day, we talk to nobel peace prize winner ely weizel about what we learned and

what we have yet to understand. >> first though guns on the agenda this week in washington. the senate on wednesday will hold first congressional hearing on gun violence since president obama announced his gun control proposals. mark kelley, the husband of former congresswoman gabrielle giffords who was seriously injured in a mass shooting in tucson, arizona and wayne lapierre among those scheduled to testify. congressman paul ryan sat down for his first sunday talk show appearance since the 2012 election. the congressman told "meet the press" moderator david gregory that it's premature to talk about whether he will run for president in 2016. >> i've got an important job to do. i represent wisconsin. i'm chairman of the budget committee at the time we have a fiscal crisis. i think can i do my job representing the people that i work for by focusing on that right now than focusing on these distant things. >> and there's this, a new anti-chuck hagel ad has just popped up days before senate hearings are set to start on his

nomination as defense secretary. the ad is from a conservative group called americans for strong defense. at least five other groups from the right and from the left are all organizing to block hagel's nomination. first though shame on you, barack obama. it was one of hillary clinton's most notorious quotes when challenging her 2008 democratic opponent, then candidate obama later shot back calling his opponent, quote, likable enough. the two have come a long way since then in a jooint joint interview airing tonight on "60 minutes" the president says he'll miss clinton calling her the finest secretary of state ever and wishes she was sticking around. nbc white house correspondent peter alexander joining me live now. peter, secretary clinton leaves the administration. what can we expect from the relationship between these two over the next few years? >> well, craig, given the amount of money that goes into a presidential campaign, i think you could say that's probably the $1 billion question right

now. a lot of people want to see exactly how this relationship between clinton and barack obama does exist and grow together over the course of the next four years. this interview as hillary clinton notes tonight on "60 minutes," she said just four years ago it would have been improbable to imagine the two of them sitting side by side. this, of course, is their first joint interview, but complicating the issues as they go forward, despite the real warmth that they have shown between one another, unclear whether that's really a personal friendship or more of a shared -- a shared belief in similar issues and passion for different -- or similar ideologies. the question complicating sthings what happens the next several years? vice president joe biden has said, according to recent reports, intoxicated by the idea of a 2016 presidential run. hillary clinton, it's believed that she would be -- she'd be -- it would be hers effectively, democrats say. i mean, she would be the early front-runner and pretty much would clear the field if she's

interested as well. we should note, as we have this conversation over my shoulder, the presidential reviewing stand, craig, is still standing up. i'm guessing your toes and fingers are still thawing out. we're 1,380 days away and yet the presidential talk has already begun. >> already started before the last election was over. nbc's peter alexander from the most famous address in america. thank you, good sir, do appreciate you. for more on what the road ahead could look like for the outgoing secretary of state, i'm joined now by kiki mcclain who served as a senior adviser for the 2008 hillary clinton for president campaign and also a senior partner and global head of public affairs at the porter novelli firm. good to see you. how are you doing, craig? >> people endlessly fascinated by the relationship by hillary clinton and president obama. it wasn't always cordial one. remember the 3:00 a.m. phone call that hillary clinton ran back in the primaries. what changed? >> well, i think service

together changed, don't you? i think hillary clinton has had the opportunity to help lead the restoration of america's image and influence around the world. she has served her president well and served the american public well, and, you know, i think this is a relationship that began with mutual respect. you certainly don't invite someone to join your cabinet in this post without that. you certainly don't accept the assignment of secretary of state without, that and now you've had four years of working closely together for the same goals, for the same things that you want for the united states, and that means you're in the bunker together on tough days, and that means you're standing proud on oh, and i think that's where personal relationships develop. people also forget that secretary clinton and president obama did have time in the senate together so they knew one another better before the tough days of the campaign. really important to remember. a campaign is meant to really define the differences of two people, but working together as this leadership team in the

administration on what they agree on and how they move forward, both challenge one another and stand behind one another. >> i want to play a brief clip from the "60 minutes" interview and get your take on the other side. take a listen. >> it has been a great collaboration over the last four years. i'm going to miss her. wish she was sticking around. >> what's next? what's next for your friend, hillary clinton? >> what's next for hillary clinton? i think hillary clinton deserves some time to take a break and rest. i think she deserves some time to think about what kind of role she can play. one of the wonderful things about her is her commitment to service and public service and what that means, and i think she will be the best person to determine the role that she plays in our country's future. there are lots of ways to serve, and she's been someone who has told us that in the public for many years, and -- and i have confidence that whatever role she ought to play she will make the right choice. >> bill clinton, of course, he campaigned extensively for president obama back in october, in fact.

>> sure. >> new york magazine, john heilemann, wrote this fascinating piece about the relationship describing it as a political marriage of convenience of sorts. he wrote that, quote, if obama wins, it may be because the former president saved his presidency, but what exactly do the clintons get in return? has there been or was there at some point a sort of a wink, wink, nod, nod, a handshake of sorts between the two? >> i can't imagine that that's possible at all. i think what you saw with president clinton was a commitment to stand up for what he believed in in this country, and he believed that barack obama would make the best president for our country at the time. folks who want to engage in conspiracy theories and anything other than one former president certainly understands better than anyone else what a current president has done and what it took to achieve that, that's all it was. >> kiki, there have been some questions about secretary clinton's health. is she healthy enough for a presidential run? >> i think she's healthy enough for anything she wants to do.

i wish i was as healthy as she is. you know, she simply took a fall and had a condition cushion and it was serious and real and needed to be addressed and she needed to follow doctor's orders that she did, but she's in good enough shape to pursue anything she would like to in the future. >> let's say hypothetically she were to run and vice president joe biden were both to run. both of them would be around plus or minus, you know, three years on either side. around 70 years old. for a party that prides itself on its ability to reach young voters, how would that work? >> well, i'll tell you what my reaction would be. aren't we lucky as a democratic party to have amazing leaders who are willing to commit mayor lives to service to us? >> i think it would be just fine. >> i know you're a founding member of no labels, a group trying to put an end to the hyperer partisanship in d.c. >> yeah. >> do you think at this point president obama's second term is going to be any different from his first with regards to trying to bridge the gap between the two? >> i think it has to be, but i think it's important to know

that he's not the only one to do it. can't do it by himself. we need members of congress to joint problem-solvers group so there's members from both chambers and parties willing to sit down together and work through the issues together and not threaten one another from coming to the other side to work together. so he can't do it by himself. it requires people from the house and the senate to be at the table with him, focused on solving problems and not worrying about their own re-election. >> veteran democratic strategist kiki mcclean, thanks so much. appreciate your time on this sunday. >> thanks, craig. we're also following developing news in brazil. a fire there at a nightclub has left more than 200 dead. the latest on that is coming up. plus, as a civil war in syria wages on i'm going to ask nobel peace prize winner eli weizel, does the world need to do to do more to stop the killing. and remember when people thought thought the world economic forum was nothing but a

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is that was pope benedict earlier today releasing two white doves as the world takes note of international holocaust remembrance day. during the holocaust, nazis killed roughly 6 million jews. today, january 27th, marks the liberation of the auschwitz concentration camp by soviet troops back in 19:45. i want to bring in author and nobel peace prize winner elie wiesel. he is a survivor of auschwitz and a national treasure as well. good to sigh, sir. how are you? >> thank you very much. thank you. >> your 1958 memoir told of the horrors and the near hopelessness of your

experiences. it's some 68 years after the liberation of the camps. how difficult has it been to make sure that people in this country and around the world, for that matter, remember the horror of that time? >> well, it wasn't easy. people didn't want to hear about it, and they didn't want to hear about it because after all we deal with something that was just so unprecedented, the cruelty, the horror, the pain, the suffering, the agony, and here we were a few witnesses who managed somehow to remain alive and bear witness. it wasn't easy. >> president obama, mr. wiesel, issued a statement, i'm sure you're aware saying in part, quote, the united states, along with the international community resolves to stand in the way of any tyrant or dictator who commits crimes against humanity and stay true to the principle of never again. syria right now in crisis, thousands of civilians killed at

the hands of government forces in that country. let's start in syria. is the united states doing enough right now there? >> president obama is sensitive to that tragedy, to the memory of that tragedy. he asked me to accompany him the first time to the washington in washington and each time he was flow foundly moved and shaken, and i am convinced, deeply convinced, when he makes such a pledge, he means to keep it. something must be done to stop the bloodshed, the mass murders which are still going on in this world. if anyone had told me, when i was liberated in 1945 by the american army, that i would still have to fight racism, hatred and if a naftcism and violence, i wouldn't have believed it, and here we are, we still have to fight to bring some kind of peace, some kind of reason, some kind of honor to

human history. >> when you spoke at the holocaust museum in washington last april you voiced concerns about israel. you said in part, quote, in this place we may ask, have we learned anything from it, speaking of the holocaust. if so, how is it that assad is still in power? how is it that the number one holocaust denier, ahmadinejad, mahmoud ahmadinejad, still is president of iran? he who threatens to use nuclear weapons to destroy the jewish state. how concerned are you about the future of israel today? >> i'm, of course, terribly concerned because israel is the only place where jews have after all come to build their own state, 2,000 years after they have lost it to the romans, and if god forbid something happens to that state, the jewish people would not be able to take it, to deal with it, two catastrophes

in our memory, it is impossible to bear and, therefore, really, we're committed to the security of israel and we try whatever we can do to help it in honor and in peace. but will still i'm worried. of course, i'm worried. statement i'm worried when other tragedies occur in this world and there are so many. >> do you feel like this country's commitment to israel is the same as it was a decade ago? >> i believe so. every american president since 1948 was committed to israel's security and survival and that goes for democrats and republicans. it is clear. no american president really has ever -- has ever even conceived of the possibility not to be for israel's survival? >> when you in israel recently you were writing a new book with president obama. first of all, is that true?

>> we had a plan together. i had lunch with him a few times last year, and we speak and we spoke to each other at two friends do, and at one point either he or i decided why not do a book on it, and it was much more, much about the elections, but we did not want to deal with it or to do it before the elections. it would have become a campaign book so we decided to wait so the idea was there and i think we agreed and one day we should do it. i don't know when. after all, he is busy. >> before i let you go. really quickly, the legacy, if you will, of the tragedy, of the holocaust. how has that evolved over the decade since you started your work? >> well, i have began, and i wrote in 1958, i wrote the cable, and i have published 60 volumes of other things, but if i hadn't written that, i

wouldn't have written any other book. i think i do know that the memory of those years must have an impact on our lives and on our decisions and on our relationships. >> author and nobel peace prize winner, elie wiesel, thank you so much, sir. always a pleasure. take care of yourself. >> thank you very much. >> thank you. they both lost their bids for the presidency. now al gore has something else in common with mitt romney. and up next, hollywood versus washington, part two. the maker of "zero dark thirty" goes after the lawmakers investigating his movie. you're watching msnbc. this is $100,000. we asked total strangers to watch it for us. thank you so much. i appreciate it. i'll be right back.

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that is the end... of carousel one. ...of carousel one. there's carousel two! all right! [ male announcer ] when you combine creamy velveeta with zesty rotel tomatoes and green chiles, you'll get a bowl of queso that makes even this get-together better. former vice president al gore has hit the jackpot. a new "time" magazine profile looks at how gore has essentially shed his past and picked up a whole lot of money in the process. gore's recent which is dealings, including his new book called "future" and the current sale of

current-tv to al jazeera have helped increase his net worth to an eye-popping $300 million. the people keeping tally at "forbes" note that that makes him richer than mitt romney. to the political playground we go for a little bit more. seems money does not make everyone happy thoughch at the world economic forum in davos this weekend, through ukranian women angry over sexism and male domination of the world, they ripped off their shirts in protest and they had the words sos davos painted on their chests. we can't show you that here on msnbc obviously. the self-described feminists scaled the fence and set off some pink flares and they tried unsuccessfully to force their way into a meeting of big business honchos at the swiss resort. despite their efforts, they failed. they were carried away kicking and screaming by security. the screenwriter of "zero dark thiry" also taking on the government with his close on and had this to say about the senate

inquiry into the oscar-nominated movie. >> i think that it could discourage other screenwriters or writers of any kind from making topical movies, could discourage studios from releasing them. criticism is fine, and can i take criticism on board, but there is a difference between criticism and investigation, and i think that crosses a line that hasn't been crossed really since the '40s when you talk about the government investigating movies. >> one institution that's very happy about money right now, johns hopkins university. with his latest donation of $350 million, new york mayor michael bloomberg, that's not him right there though, that's lindsey graham, michael bloomberg has become the most generous university donor of in the united states. he has now given a total of $1.1 billion to his school. not bad for a guy who was apparently, his first donation to johns hopkins was 5 bucks about the year after he

graduated and if you think you've seen the last of grover norquist. the tax activist has thrown his hat back into the ring, not over taxes this time but in support of statehood for puerto rico. norquist will appear at a press conference this week with former republican governor luis fortuno and some analysts say the president declared liberalism alive and well during his inaugural address what does that mean for his second-term agenda? and the super bowl may become a platform this year to support gay marriage, at least if one baltimore ravens player has his way. i'll talk to dave zarin who has a new book about the impact of politics on sports. a fascinating read. this is msnbc, the place for politics. when you have diabetes...

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witnesses say a flare or some kind of fishing lit by band members performing may have started the blaze. more than 100 people are still in local hospitals. at this point it looks like the nightclub tragedy is going to be the world's deadliest nightclub fire in more than a decade. i'm craig melvin. here's a quick look at some of the other top stories making news. egypt's president mohamed morsi has just declared a 30-day state of emergency. morsi's announcement comes after four days of civil unrest in that country fighting at a mass nooun funeral -- mass funeral in port say yesterday. hacker activists from the group anonymous say, quote, a line was crossed when aaron swartz committed suicide earlier this month. hackers are set to release secret information they say was copied from several government systems. when he killed himself the 26-year-old swartz was facing federal fraud charges for

apparently hacking into m.i.t.'s computer network. on the surface, sports and politics really couldn't be more different. generally speaking one divides and the other unites. we love filling stadiums and arenas and camping out on our couches to scream for our squads but there's a new book that looks at what our politics is doing to our sports. it's called "game over." how politics has turned the sports world upside down. our friend dave zirin wrote it and hosts a pretty good show on xm radio. nice to have you here. >> great to be here. >> sports and politics have always collided but in your new book you contend that the relationship has essentially become even more complex in recent years. how so. >> absolutely. there's been a fundamental change over the last five years, and one of the reasons why i both the book was that i was so frustrated about the fact that most major sports outlets weren't discussing this. it's like if they were, you know, reporting on the

revolutionary war and all they could talk about were the type of muskets people were using and not taking a step back and looking at what actually was taking place. i mean, i would argue there have been three major developments in the last five years that have fundamentally transformed sports. the first is the movement for rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people, lbgt people, something that's been become a part of the sports world in a pretty fundamental way. the sec thing we've seen take place, which really hasn't been talked about nearly enough in this regard, is the economic crisis. the massive economic crisis in 2008, the largest in 70 years, i mean, it's had a massive ripple effect in the world of sports. you just referenced a sporting event in the lead up to the interview talking about the unrest in egypt, the starting point of that was a soccer riot, a soccer riot that involved a soccer club that i spent a whole chapter talking about in the book, a fundamental central player to the egyptian revolution that overthrew hosni

mubarak, and their response to the port say yesterday soccer riot is a very interesting part of what's taking place right there. the focus on the police as opposed to going after other souk soccer clubs and the third thing, and i don't think once again this has been talked about nearly enough, has been the historic -- no matter what one things about president obama, the historic nature of electing the first african-american president in 2008 had an effect of raising the confidence of athletes, particularly african-american athletes. >> that brings me to my second question. >> yeah. >> there's been tremendous pressure on athletes to essentially shut up and play unless they are endorsing something. >> exactly. >> and an increasing number of athletes don't seem to be separating their politics from the profession. this is a recent example, a power forward for the nba's denver nuggets. take a look and i want to talk about this on the other side. >> my mom to my right is mahassan and my mom to the right

is my birth mother, and basically i support civil unions. nobody can't ever tell me that i can't have two mothers because i really do. >> this probably would never have happened 10 or 15 years ago, david zirin. you know that. why is it now that athletes are taking more political issues? >> on this issue in particular it's a great example because to me it's the whole real world sports world dynamic and yes, it's definitely true, the real world over here and the sports world over here, but this moat that separates the two, people are starting to build bridges and in the last five years there's been a national movement state by state for lbgt rights and for marriage equality. and athletes, as one athlete said to me, i quote him in the book. he said, look, it's not like we live on planet jock and only come down here to play games and also not like we watch our own msnbc. you know, that's just for athletes. you know, we're part of this world, too, and when you have more and more athletes who have

connections to the lbgt community and a more and more confident lbgt community you'll see those connections take place, it's fascinated. led to this year's super bowl. baltimore ravens breyer brendan andio wants to speak about gay marriage and this is only a small part of what i try to talk about in the book, but what it shows so clearly though is you don't have this divide between the sports world and the real world. you have real questions that are often traversed because of social movements. >> dave zirin, author of the book "game over," full disclosure, halfway through it, really enjoying it, too. >> wow. >> thanks for doing it and thanks for being here on this afternoon. >> i'll put it on the back cover.

i'm halfway through it and i'm really enjoying it. >> next saturday, folks, be sure to watch us here 2:00 eastern. i'll be joined by football hall of famer marcus allen, grew up loving this guy. really excited talking to him next saturday just in time for super bowl sunday. we are now one full week into president obama's second term, and a theme already seems to be emerging from republicans, including john boehner. it's that the president is on a mission to annihilate the gop and push a far left agenda, and they point to his inaugural speech as evidence where the president said things like, well, this. >> preserving our individual freedoms ultimately requires collective action, medicare and medicaid and social security. these things do not sap our nation. they strengthen us. we will respond to the threat of climate change. our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law. >> joining me now bill schneider, resident fellow third way, washington think tank and tara mcguinnes senior vice

president of communications at the center for american progress. hello to both of you. >> hey, thanks for having us. >> bill, let's start with the speech. not just conservatives here who say that it was progressive. salon.com calling it the most liberal speech of obama's presidency. did the president miss a chance here to reach out to republicans, bill schneider? >> i don't think he was trying to do that. he was trying to basically stay -- say that he believes that government can do a lot of good and just about every issue that you quoted the president on is something that most americans believe. he was saying the era of reaganism is over. president reagan said taxing power of government should not be used to regulate the economy or bring about social change but we do that all the time and the president was defending government. >> tara, a lot of people have been pointing out lately this a majority of the country supports things like same-sex marriage, higher taxes on the rich, want to preserve medicare at all costs, but i want to show you a gallup poll from the past summer.

found that 46% of americans say that they are actually conservative on economic issues. 32% say they are moderate and just 20% say they are liberal on economic issues. when it comes to social issues, 38% say they are conservative and 31% moderate and 28% liberal and these are the numbers. has america really become as liberal as some democrats would like to believe, and is this evidence to the contrary? >> i think have you to look closer at the issues. when people put themselves into a category as progressive or conservative or liberal, you miss out on figuring out that actually people don't fall into categories. some people who are for marriage equality might consider themselves to be conservative if you gave them that choice, but they are for people having the freedom in their own lives to do things, so i think when you look down the issues though about whether you think the government should do more to make our country more equal for the very wealth and the very poor, you look at the issues, on issue by issue, the public really lines up with the president, you know. i think the president put

himself squarely with we the people. he said it over five times in the speech, and so these categories aren't as telling as where people are when it comes to some of these core questions of climate change or equality and what that means now. >> bill, not to dwell on just the speech here, but do you think that 10, 15, 20 years from now when folks are poring over the actual text of the speech that they will in fact compare it to reagan's speech in 1980, that they will look at the speech as the president acting sort of an impetus to a seismic shift in this country? >> well, it depends on what happens in the next couple of decades. the reagan speech set the nation's agenda for the next 32 years. even chin kline affirmed it when he said in his state of the union speech in 1996 that the era of big government is over. reaganism ruled for a long time. the country was very strongly anti-government. obama's presiding over the arrival of a new coalition. democrats have carried the popular vote in five out of the

last six presidential elections. now, if democrats move into power and begin to build a new majority as republicans did for 30 some years, then, yes, historians will look at this speech as setting the agenda. >> tara, historically labor unions have been a part of the aforementioned coalition by bill schneider there, but there's some new numbers on union membership in this country. i want to put those up here. 11.3% of the workforce now belongs to a uniion. that's the lowest figure in 97 years. in recent decade we've seen a widening gap between the rich and the poor in this country perhaps because of these numbers. when it comes to labor, it does appear that progressives are losing ground, no? >> yeah. hey, labor has been under attack from some very aggressive forces for the past 30 years. when it comes to union membership, progressives are losing ground. when it comes to the ideas that labor has fought for and in fact there is a direct correlation between the average wage of americans and the strength of

unions in the united states, having unions helps lift wages for all people, and at core of that argument i don't think that's looting ground. i think across the board, you know, left and right, people are worried about our squeezed middle class, and unions have been a big part of that story. >> bill schneider third way and tara mcguinnes, center for american progress, thank you for joining me. >> thanks for having us. >> speaking of the president's agenda, one of his biggest legacies is facing a bill challenge ahead. health care reform could find its way back to the supreme court. more on that next. also, mitt romney is back and vows to get involved. what will we hear from him next? the brain trust is here. with the spark cash card from capital one, olaf gets great rewards for his small business! pizza! [ garth ] olaf's small business earns 2% cash back on every purchase, every day! helium delivery. put it on my spark card! [ pop! ]

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trust, msnbc contributor and political editor peter bacon, robert costa, washington editor for "the national review" and also a cnbc kudlow report contributor. good sunday afternoon to both of you. >> good afternoon, craig. >> birth control looks like it could be the next legal battle for the white house on health care. according to the "new york times" roman catholics, evangelicals and mennenize the are all challenging a new provision in the health care law that requires employers to cover birth control in employee health plans. the religious groups say that the government is forcing them to go against their faith. bob costa, what's the argument here? >> republicans are devastated after this election so they are looking for ways to combat the obama agenda and look to the court and think birth control is an issue that will really get conservative activists active on the campaign trail and in the statehouse and active working with congress so that's where they are really focused now as they say this as a religious

freedom issue. >> and aisha moody mills is here and we thought since we were talking about birth control it would be a good idea to have a woman be part of the conversation. what do you think about this? >> you underscored the key point here. why is it that women's health care is always on the line and up for debate and being poked and prodded in the courts? >> i think about this issue in a personal way, not just because i'm a woman but because i've had issues where doctors throughout my life have encouraged me to get on some kind of contraception because of real medical issues that i was having and what's interesting is debating whether there should be coverage for real health issues that we face and men are using and popping all kinds of pills for recreational sex quite frankly and hormones to enhance their ability to recreationally have sex, and no one is questioning whether or not health insurance plans should cover those pills.

>> thank you so much for shifting the conversation here, aisha moodie-mills. could health care, perry, wind up back before the supreme court before it's fully implemented in 2014? >> i do i this can be. this couldn'tception issue we knew it was coming. there was a big fight about this policy being included in the law last year. that said the core of this law is unlikely to be overturned. i mean a big risk was taken in terms of his conservative legacy in defending the mandate and defending other parts of this law so it's unlikely the whole law will be sort of relitigated again. the broader part of the law will be looked at again. >> we've talked about the president's shutout to liberalism, if you will. how liberal do you think the president's speech was? >> i'll tell you this, craig. on capitol hill, republicans are reeling after that speech because they think the

president's truly shifting to the left, articulating a progressive agenda, and think president barack obama just explained where he stands on all the issues, and he is moving to the left, and he's unashamed about it. >> aisha, the president, he's faced some criticism heretofor from the most liberal wick of the party over the fiscal cliff deal. did the speech bring the left back into the fold? >> sure. i think that it did. i mean, one of the questions that, you know, i would ask is why is it that when you have a president who is elected to serve the entire united states, who actually articulates in a speech works says that i care about all americans be they immigrants, be they gay or transgender americans, i care about poor people, i want to make sure my administration is serving everyone, that this becomes something that we raise an eyebrow at. i think his populist tone was not only right on the mark in terms of it being about liberal ideologies and a partisan play, but he's talking about ideas that are -- that are popular, that the public believes in, and

so he's serving his constituents. he's serving the united states. the justice department that he is talking about is not a fringe faction, the thing that most americans believe in. >> i always like to give shotouts to your grewo columns. in one of your columns this week you write the president's inauguration speech was in fact a strong defense of liberalism. do you think perhaps the president should have been a little more inclusive towards moderate democrats, even republicans as well? >> this was a speech about his governing philosophy, so i thought it was appropriate. the thing that he said that i thought was most important was he said when you think of like medicare, social security and medicaid, those programs are really important to the fabric of our country, and they don't make us a nation of takers. the phrase nation of takers -- >> stole their language. >> not subtle at all. >> stole their language. >> that was a direct rebuttal to the sort of paul ryan vision of government. the president was not trying to give a bipartisan speech. he was trying to say here's where i stand the same way president bush in 2005 in his second inaugural. this was not an attempt to

bridge gaps. almost like a defense of government and liberalism for president obama. >> the real question republicans are asking when i'm on capitol hill is why did the president have to give this kind of speech? he has another four years in the white house, and they think the president is moving to the left not only with his message but with his policies and they just don't think any kind of compromise is possible if the president is taking this posture. >> go ahead, aish sgla this whole inization that t-- insinu that the president is moving to the left, you have paul ryan budgeting forth a budget with even more of a far, far right wing reach than the first one. if there's anyone it's certainly them, and it's not to the center. >> let's leave it there and take a quick break. we'll pay some bills, and when we return we'll turn our brain trust into lead line writers. we'll ask them to break down

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and the brain trust is back. aisha moodie-mills and barry bacon and robert costa. you wrote the "national review" online mitt romney was planning to speak out when he met a former group of donors in washington, d.c. hasn't yet had much to say publicly at this point, robert costa. play headline writers for me, guys. bob, we'll start with you here. what would your headline be if you were writing about this, if you were writing about this story? >> it's a great question, craig, and for the last few month, since the election, mitt romney has been in la jolla, california, at his beach front mansion without many public appearances. here's my headline. romney slowly but surely will make capital gains working with his old ally paul ryan to be a casual adviser perhaps to the house of representatives >> you don't believe that? there's no way you believe that? >> let me explain. i don't think he's going to

mettle in primaries or be active in the 2014 campaign cycle, but i think he'll be a private adviser to some congressional republicans who he became close with in the campaign. >> that would be akin to taking investment advice from bernie madeoofs, wouldn't it? >> wow. >> what -- i'm just playing devil's advocate here, bob. why would you take campaign advice from mitt romney? >> it's a very fair point. mitt romney only got 206 electoral votes, but as a business man he perhaps has some acumen to share. >> okay. investment advice. aisha, what's your headline? >> i mean, romney's back in d.c. meeting with rich people, duh. >> that's your headline. >> that's it. >> i mean, are we surprised? you know. you would think that if he is trying to advise republicans on their next steps and political strategy he'd stop talking to the same old cronies who essentially funded his losing campaign and would get out in america and start talking to real people and get some fresh ideas. >> last but certainly not least,

my friend, perry bacon, what's the headline, sir? >> mine was republicans ignore republican advice. mitt romney lost. republicans didn't think of -- i covered john kerry in 2004. he was -- he was in 2005 saying i'm going to be a leader of the democratic party on issue. the democrats were like what are you talking about? you lost a winnable election. we're not listening to you about anything. >> not like you see michael dukakis and a bunch of democrats. >> right. >> not like he's an adviser to the party. you lose, you get sent home. that's part of the punishment. >> and i think romney is actually fine going home knowing mitt romney. he's okay. >> the question is which home, i guess. robert costa, perry bacon, aisha moodie-mills, thanks to all of you and thanks even more for your insight. >> thanks to you as well. stay warm there. join us next week right here on msnbc, saturday, 2:00 eastern, for all the latest political news and analysis. sunday we'll be here at 3:00 right here. we'll be out in time for the super bowl, and don't forget to keep it here for the latest news

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